'They're not there yet but they will be soon': Ubisoft analyst on MENA gaming [Wamda TV]

No matter how you slice it, the gaming industry in the Middle
East lags behind European, Asian, and American markets when you
look at sheer
revenue numbers. But there’s also no doubt that it’s catching
up – fast. “Gaming in the region is growing faster than the global
average…. expected to nearly triple in size in the coming years –
from $1.6 billion in 2014 to $4.4 billion in 2022,”
said Jayant Bhargava, a partner in global strategy firm
Strategy&.

As the market expands, a major question for regional and global
game publishers is how to balance the temptation to emulate
successful gaming business strategies in other markets against
formulating a series of new strategies, specific for the MENA.

Wamda sat down with Ubisoft/Bluebyte online game specialist Teut
Weidemann at the recent
MENA Games conference in Beirut to discuss these ideas, as well
as to get some indicators of where the market now stands.

‘MENA players are very skillful’

First and foremost, Weidemann emphasized the generally high
skill level of players in the Middle East. “MENA players are very
strong; very skillful. If a game is too easy, they won’t like it,”
he said. “They are more competitive than gamers in the West, and
they are really good at what they do.”

For this reason, “I bet in the future we’ll have more MENA
countries winning computer game world championships simply because
they have really skillful players. They’re not there yet but they
will be soon.”

Conversion rates

On the subject of conversion rates, or the percentage of players
who convert to paying to play, Weidemann was able to share some
data on the region. “Generally on smartphones and iPads you have
conversion rates anywhere between 1 and 5%. The problem with these
numbers is that they’re an average, it removes the peaks,” and
hence, the best opportunity for lessons. “If you know what games
get the 10% conversion rates, you can learn how they did it,” and
attempt to emulate.

Players, he elaborated, will be put off when asked to pay for a
game, even a great game, if the payment prompt feels tacked on.
“You need to naturally integrate the payment into the game,”
Weidemann said, “otherwise the player gets the feeling that the
paying is more important than the game,” and will be less likely to
convert.

Weidemann has spoken in the past on how paying attention to
others’ conversion rates can be instructive to game developers and
publishers. “Learn why [one publisher’s formula] works, and where
the mistakes are,” and why some publishers can afford to prioritize
other things before monetization, he was reported as saying in
PC Gamer.

Market localization

For publishers in the rest of the world who are interested in
taking a bite of the ripening MENA market, Weidemann urged caution,
emphasizing the region’s diversity at several points in the
interview. Each country’s differing politics, culture, religions,
dialects – and ultimately, audiences – require Western and American
publishers (who are more likely to have preconceived notions about
the region) to educate themselves on how to best break into
individual countries, he said.

However, localizing a game can be a big investment for
publishers who don’t already have a foothold in a market.
“Publishers who don’t have success in a market don’t like to tailor
games to that market because it’s too much effort, whereas
publishers who have had success in a market love doing it because
they embrace the market. It’s a kind of head-by-tail situation,” he
said. The question then becomes: what’s the least risky
localization strategy for publishers who want to break into new
markets?